When Charlie Chaplin was making Shoulder Arms, many worried that the movie would come under fire (so to speak) for kidding the World War (blessed be the ignorance that there was a second World War to come). As it happened, the movie was released on Oct. 20, 1918, a month before the Germans signed the Armistice and ended the war, so by that point America could afford to laugh at it.
And yet, just as with Chaplin’s World War “companion piece” The Great Dictator, there’s an awful lot of melancholy amidst the comedy. Critics have often complained about Chaplin-the-producer’s cheapness, but there’s no denying that the trenches in which Charlie and his fellow soldiers operate are so authentically dank and claustrophic, you can just about smell them. And they provide some memorable bits, as when the soldiers do their best to sleep in flooded quarters, or when Charlie, bereft of mail from home, reads a letter over a fellow soldier’s shoulder and reacts in empathy with him.
Ironically, the sunniest-looking parts of the movie involve the German soldiers’ activities; occupied France looks uncannily like palm-treed California. But perhaps that fits, since this section of the movie is mostly wish-fulfillment anyway, as Charlie and his peers collect no less than the Kaiser in their endeavors.
And for a moviemaker who used intertitles tersely, Shoulder Arms provides some of Chaplin’s funniest. When Charlie is asked to explain how he captured 13 German soldiers single-handedly, he replies via title, “I surrounded them!” When one of the Kaiser’s men is briefly enjoying some alcohol, the Kaiser admonishes him, “Pay attention to the war!”
It all ends in an undeniably jingoistic but rousing climax (that shot of Charlie literally kicking the Kaiser’s behind must have sent cheers through theaters in 1918), before we find that – wait for it – Charlie is still sleeping in boot camp and it has all been a dream. (I’d love for some silent-film historian to document how many times the old “It was only a dream” cop-out was employed as a climax; Chaplin and Keaton alone seem to have cornered the market on it.)
The nicest part of Shoulder Arms is its self-reflexiveness; the movie’s somber setting seems to have freed Chaplin from the gotta-keep-‘em-laughing, frantic pacing of his earlier work. It’s obviously paving the way for bigger and more thoughtful things to come.
Thanks for covering this important comedy film! Chaplin’s daring subject matter certainly worked out for him, and as you said paved the way for his future films. (Now I’m feeling the need to try and figure out how many times the “it was a dream” cliche has been used. It’s gotta be in the thousands.)
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It’s all about the timing with this film – had the release date been earlier or later I think it would’ve been significantly less successful, even with Chaplin’s name at the helm. That scene where he reads the letter over the soldier’s shoulder is truly moving, and sums up so many of my feelings about WWI.
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Thank you for joining in the event! I just adore Chaplin’s short films and this is surely one of his best (oh, but how do we ever choose?)
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I’m glad you wrote about Shoulder Arms. I have been fascinated by this one since I read that Chaplin originally shot it as a three-reeler, which flopped in previews. He dropped the first reel, about Charlie’s home life and induction into the army, and it was a smash. Thanks for sharing with all of us.
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Chaplin captures the Kaiser??!! This I’ve got to see! Thanks for the write up about it, an unfamilar film to me.
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I watched this film some years ago, and now I remembered some details. I never forgot, though, Chaplin disguised in the tree and the scenes with Edna Purviance.
And, well, now I really want to count in how many silent movies all the action was just a dream!
Don’t forget to read my contribution to the blogathon! 🙂
Greetings!
http://www.criticaretro.blogspot.com.br/2014/09/a-epopeia-do-jazz-alexanders-ragtime.html
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